Understanding User Requirements for the Design of a Semantic Digital Library Interface

This paper discusses the role of interaction and user experience in the design of an interface of search for digital libraries. We present our preliminary work in the design of an advanced interaction interface for “Publicamente”, a web based semantic multimedia digital library that allows the archiving, management and access to a collection of heterogeneous documents types. In this paper we explore the user requirements, and present the design guidelines for the interface of the system. Users of “Publicamente” are be both expert users and casual users and the interface need to being able to accommodate different search styles, make semantic technologies transparent to casual users, and leverage on the semantic layer in the presentation of the retrieved information and its context.